Coffee cake

I also want to brag about my coffee cake... because I baked it from scratch (with Pamela's help). 

My realization:

Baking is hard. I should stick with cooking Korean food.

New camera

Just to make a separate blog entry to brag about my new camera - CANON SD 1100 IS. I think it's the same one as Christine Bae's. My uncle got it for my brother but I just took it from him. He said he doesn't need a camera, so good for me! A new camera wahooooooooo I'm going to take pictures like Bae and capture every moment of my senior year :)

NOT STUDYING

I finished my midterm last Friday and it feels so good. So so sosososososoososososoososos good that I don't have another midterm until 8th week. Yeehaw!

So it was my mom's birthday this Saturday. My mom is the best. The funniest moment of her birthday was when my family was singing the happy birthday song to her (my brother got sweet potato cake from Paris Baguette), because she was so loud. I've never seen her so into singing a song until last night. My dad, brother, and I were just like "sang il chook ha hap ni dah~" very quietly but she went ALL out. My mom's pretty cute. 

I feel like I'm gunna pass out and it's only 12:20 AM. But you know what.... I don't even care what I look like at school tomorrow. Just gotta slap on some workout clothes. YAY!

MY WEEKEND WAS SO UNPRODUCTIVE. UGH. 

And why are there so many birthdays in April? I had at least 5+ birthday "things" I needed to attend so far. Wow, can it get anymore overwhelming?

I remember when Pastor Alex said something along the lines of learning to say "no" to all those things. I definitely did not accomplish that this past weekend...

HAPPY WEEK 4 -- it's also my last "week 4" as an undergrad at UCLA... I probably won't come back here for graduate school, but it is so surreal that most of the things I'm doing these days will be one of the last's. 

What more do I want to do before I leave UCLA, although I'm stuck in Westwood for at least next 2 years of my life? 

The art of interviewing

So far, I think I've gone on at least 30+ interviews, including first, second, and occasional third rounds for internship, full-time positions, etc. I had always been the one to be interviewed, but I got to be on the other side of the table for AAP today. About 25 people applied for 4 available tutor positions -- WOW, such competition. I don't even think there was anyone else who applied to tutor Econ 101 except me when I applied during my third year... 

Basically, most of the interviews went like this:

1) Greeting: Hi, how are you? Please have a seat. How's your day going? (then the small talk continues)

2) Introduction: I'd like to introduce myself before we begin. My name is Hari and I'm currently a 4th year majoring in Math/econ and I've been tutoring Econ 101 for 5 quarters.

3) Ask questions: What are your strengths and weaknesses as a tutor? What three words would describe you the best? If ______ happened during your tutoring session, what would you do? (many other behavioral/situation questions)

4) Mock tutoring: Pretend that you are a tutor. Teach a lesson for 5 minutes.

5) Closing: Thanks for coming in. We'll get back to you in five days. 

I interviewed about 8 people and realized that interviewing someone is very subjective. It's all about whether or not you like that person. I was thinking inside how biased interviews are, but also realized that I like interviewees who are good, meaning they communicate their ideas clearly (which is very important to be a tutor), outgoing, good personality, energetic, etc. 

I also realized that it's not the best idea to be the last person to be interviewed for the day. By the time I was done interviewing the 4th candidate, I was so tired and hungry that I got kind of cranky. Sorry, if I was mean to you or snapped at you today... In addition, I really didn't want to mention this, but I'm just going to say it anyway -- it definitely helps to be presentable in terms of looks. For example, you don't necessarily need to be the best looking person in the world to get a job, but it definitely helps to have a good smile and a clean-cut look. 

Hmmm, hope I'm making sense. I'm so tired. It's 10:51 PM and I think I'm going to hit the bed in 30 minutes. 

YAY FOR THE WEEKEND (which will/should be filled with lots of number theory...)

It's been decided....

I'm going to be in San Francisco this summer! 

It's funny how things just fell into place for me. I am.... SO STOKED! HERE I COME, THE "CITY" LIFE :)

I feel like I'm such a bad sister to my brother. 

It sucks that I don't know how to express my love for him. How can I be a better sister? What should I do? I know how to provide material things for him -- buy him the shortshift or whatever that is called, buy him this and that, give him allowances, etc., but I ultimately don't know how to let him know that I am truly thankful to have a brother like him... HOW? that is the question...

Seriously having some FML moments these days... I better hear some good news from the math department tomorrow or I think I'll probably go crazy... Okay that was a bit too dramatic but I really cannot afford to be in school any longer!

I'm going to try my best to be active this quarter in every aspect -- my college years are coming to an end soon! I was driving around the dorms today and felt like I was still a freshmen. Oh those good ol' days. I miss having all these older people around me to talk to, look up to, etc. I feel much comfortable being the younger one rather than the opposite. Sigh.

Time to go to sleep.